Question 1

Why is it cuya (feminine) if the landowner (el terrateniente) is masculine?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, the possessive relative pronoun cuyo (whose) must match the gender and number of the noun being possessed, not the owner. Since familia is feminine and singular, we use cuya. It doesn't matter that the owner (el terrateniente) is masculine.

Question 2

Is cuya commonly used in everyday spoken Spanish?

Accepted Answer

It is standard in written, formal, or journalistic Spanish, but native speakers often avoid it in casual conversation because it sounds very formal. In everyday speech, someone might rephrase this idea entirely, such as splitting it into two sentences or saying something like El terrateniente que tiene la familia que construyó el claustro...

Question 3

Building a cloister takes a long time. Why is construyó in the preterite instead of the imperfect?

Accepted Answer

The preterite construyó is used because the building of the cloister is viewed as a single, completed event in the past. Even if an action took years to finish, if you are simply stating it as a completed historical fact, you use the preterite. The imperfect (construía) would translate more accurately to "were building" or "used to build."

Question 4

How is the word terrateniente formed?

Accepted Answer

It is a compound word made of two parts: tierra (land) and teniente (holder, which comes from the verb tener). So it literally translates to "landholder" or landowner.

El terrateniente cuya familia construyó el claustro perdió su dinero.

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